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Say what you like about 'fiat money' and 'taxation is theft' and big gov't and etcetcetc but if somebody robs my bank it doesn't cost me anything directly.

mrb 13y ago
Same with Bitcoin. When Bitcoin exchange MtGox was hacked on June 19, 2011, the attacker stole 2000 coins (worth $0.6 million today), but MtGox covered the losses with their own funds. Customers lost nothing. Large, reputable, mature businesses will cover losses for you, no matter if it is USD or BTC.
- stephenr 13y ago
  Banks have some kind of regulation (even in the financial wild west that is the USA), and deposit insurance covers their customers against theft. This jackass has said he isn’t likely to even report the theft to police. That another bit coin exchange was able to cover the losses from a theft out of its own pocket is more likely good luck than good planning.
  - mrb 13y ago
    "Good luck"?? No that's planning. Read about some of the security mechanisms that reputable exchanges put in place: http://blog.coinbase.com/post/33197656699/coinbase-now-storing-87-of-customer-funds-offline http://blog.coinbase.com/post/33197656699/coinbase-now-stori...
gnerd 13y ago
So what about if the government decides to devalue the currency by printing more money? Hasn't that 'quantitive easing' eroded your stored value? Your balance might be the same but the purchasing power and thus value isn't. Best bit is you won't know till after its done, way after. It might be a nice incentive for investing money to keep value ahead of inflation but to the man-on-the-street its a bit like robbery in some sense in that it deprives you of the full expected value of your funds.
- sanskritabelt 13y ago
  Well in actual fact, despite all the flack the feds get about monetary policy, core inflation is very very low. I remember the inflation of the late 70s/early 80s, and we are absolutely not seeing that now. Oil prices are obviously much higher than they were fifteen years ago, which has follow-on effects for transport and food and similar, and is why I specified 'core' inflation. How would a bitcoin economy deal with these sorts of spikes in commodity prices?

mrb 13y ago

Same with Bitcoin. When Bitcoin exchange MtGox was hacked on June 19, 2011, the attacker stole 2000 coins (worth $0.6 million today), but MtGox covered the losses with their own funds. Customers lost nothing. Large, reputable, mature businesses will cover losses for you, no matter if it is USD or BTC.

stephenr 13y ago
Banks have some kind of regulation (even in the financial wild west that is the USA), and deposit insurance covers their customers against theft. This jackass has said he isn’t likely to even report the theft to police. That another bit coin exchange was able to cover the losses from a theft out of its own pocket is more likely good luck than good planning.
- mrb 13y ago
  "Good luck"?? No that's planning. Read about some of the security mechanisms that reputable exchanges put in place: http://blog.coinbase.com/post/33197656699/coinbase-now-storing-87-of-customer-funds-offline http://blog.coinbase.com/post/33197656699/coinbase-now-stori...

gnerd 13y ago

So what about if the government decides to devalue the currency by printing more money? Hasn't that 'quantitive easing' eroded your stored value? Your balance might be the same but the purchasing power and thus value isn't. Best bit is you won't know till after its done, way after. It might be a nice incentive for investing money to keep value ahead of inflation but to the man-on-the-street its a bit like robbery in some sense in that it deprives you of the full expected value of your funds.

sanskritabelt 13y ago
Well in actual fact, despite all the flack the feds get about monetary policy, core inflation is very very low. I remember the inflation of the late 70s/early 80s, and we are absolutely not seeing that now. Oil prices are obviously much higher than they were fifteen years ago, which has follow-on effects for transport and food and similar, and is why I specified 'core' inflation. How would a bitcoin economy deal with these sorts of spikes in commodity prices?